I think there's a difference in definitions here which @David partly covered in his post
When I say wide men I'm talking about the sides of our front 3 - The guys who become part of a 4-5-1 in defence and a 4-3-3 in attack - Lampard seems to prefer that they aim to mostly cut inside - Which I personally thinks creates more problems solutions
Should - However the major problem (for me) is that when Malone or (especially) Bogle come forward they mostly seem not to have any support - It's the same problem Christie had towards the end of his time with us - Tricksy players are at their best when the opposition don't know what they're going to do next - Will they pass? Which way will they pass? Will they go for the line? Will they dart inside? - I've noticed a lot with Bogle that he's left on his own out there so that when he gets the ball from Keogh or Huddlestone he has restricted options - pass back or beat his man - There's rarely support from the forward on that side with an outlet pass or coming short for a one-two - Means the defender has a really easy job - There's only 1 attacking option for Bogle to take and the defender simply blocks that off

Lampard doesn't seem to want to play wingers though - He plays wide men to cut inside - On Saturday it was right-footed Holmes on the left and left-footed Waghorn on the right
It drives me mental that he does that - It means we have no width, half the time when Bogle attacks he has no support and when the midfield/defence are looking to play outlet passes into wide positions there isn't an option and/or our wide midfielder is making another run inside (which is into the space the CMs are running into)
The flip side is you could argue we have more players in the box than we ever used to - Under previous managers we've often failed to get enough players in the box so crosses were being aimed at only 1 player - That seems to have changed (mainly because we don't have anyone making crosses...)
Anyway - Don't expect to see proper, touchline-hugging wingers any time soon

For me there's a huge difference between not looking as good as the likes of Michael Essien in a squad winning league titles and the champions league vs "Is he good enough to play in the Championship?"
He's only 31 and (for me) would be a better option than bringing either Ledley or Johnson back into the fold

I think he started at LB because they had Willy Sagnol at RB when he came through?
He switched to RB when they decided he was the best RB/Fullback/Defender they had at the club
And I personally think Lahm might be the best full-back of all time so he shouldn;t be the benchmark 🙂
Oh yeh, that was a golden time for full backs - The ones we have now by comparison aren't impressive - But I reckon pretty much every England fan at the time would have chosen another teams LB ahead of him - And you would have had 12 different suggestions of who that would be - No one at the time used to talk about him being world class - At least not in my social circles anyway!

I think Hughes spoiled us - He was a class act and a level above the rest of the team as soon as he came in - We've forgotten that pretty much every other player needs time to settle and learn their craft
Christie was 22 when he first came in and he was a much better player when he left us than when he started

We've had this discussion in the pub a few times - We criminally under-rate our defenders because of some perceived glamour of foreign defenders
Cole was a world class left back - By that I mean "Would he enter discussions for an annual world best team" and the answer absolutely is yes over the course of probably 10 years
I've often said the same thing about Ferdinand and Terry - We always knew they made a good defensive unit but the benefit of time makes me look back at them and put them in the quality level of World Class too

I'd be a fan of that - Think there's way too much allowance given at corners - It's like there's an unwritten rull that shirt pulling is unacceptable in open play but fine at corners...
Yeh - But it's the same reason they don't show controversial decisions on the half time replay - Fans would be up in arms if they thought the decision was going the wrong way
It's a new technology and they just need time to get the rules right - They obviously have added the directive for linesmen not to flag - And now maybe they need a directive that says 'borderline calls go in favour of the attacking players' or something like that - We want to be encouraging more goals not less

Haha I always think of that game where Bennett came on with no fear and tore past Cole 2/3 times - Probably the most impressive 10 mins I've seen from him and if he can develop into the player that 10 mins suggested he can still be a force

Yes - We usually are
However I would say Friday was a definite sign that we are not ready to compete for a top 2 place - We were completely outplayed by Leeds - Who I would argue are a decent but not spectacular Championship leader - They aren't (for me) as good as Wolves were last year
We've also struggled in games like Rotherham and Bolton - Scrappy teams - And not buried teams like Blackburn at home when we should - There have been a few games like Swansea where we only won because of two magic moments from a player who is a league above this in quality and not really ours - All very much signs that say "we're good, moving in the right direction, but not quite there yet"
I've been saying for ages we need to be making signings on a 2 year plan (like Evans, Marriott, Holmes etc) rather than to get us up this season - We're just not ready for that yet - And haven't been all season

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